TH E TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, AUGUST 10, 1899.
health nor in sickness; it is not a ience in worldly matters. W ithout j
safe guide for our youth in trying father, mother, or Godly priest to
to
o,i„- and
o„,i counsel
„ , her.
. • it
. • is not . at .
. form
.. . temperate,
t~
> moral charac- advise
ters; it is not a safe guide as a lit-
. . .
erary study, in the study of astron- a . surprising that she fell an ea»y
omy, geology, biology, physiology, victim in her first and only flirt a-
history, or geography. In fact, the tiou with the good-looking and well-
book with which priests and preach- dressed snake.
ers have fleeced their flocks for
U llt t -
a
.
ages, is a holy humbug, and their
J
God, with his murdered son and w,ser than sue knew, and her inno­
holy mother is another. There are cent flirtation with the serpent, and
no gods excepting in the poor, her subsequent persuasion of her
weak minds of poor, weak mortals; i young husband to partake of the
and the , ideas of , God and
his
„ have
.
.
, .
xj
. i doings
*
apple, while it may
brought
are only the echos reflected to us
, .
J
,
6
from an ancient, ignorant priest- ever^a®t,ng punishment in the red-
hood.
hot flames of hell, yet it prevented
far worse misery for the human
tfor the Torch of Reason.
race by bringing death to its relief.
Delayed Justice.
Without death in the world, and
assuming it to be six thousand
BY CHARLES KENT TENNEY.
years since the birth of Eve, and
----------
that the race would double every
For six thousand years, Eve, our fifty years (a very moderate esti-
common mother, has been held in mate), there would now be living
detestation and reproach for using on the earth no less than 7,652,232,-
her seductive and alluring arts in 943,370,062,831,875,797,961,000,000
persuading Adam to partake of the human beings struggling for exist-
forbidden apple. From that little ence; and for every human being
practice of feminine ways over the now on earth there would then he
guileless and unsuspecting Adam, 5,197,450,970,667,142,479-, 000,000.
came sin and death, and the neces­ Prof. Levasseuer of Paris, places the
sity for a hell, on the burning floors present population at 1,472,230,000.
of which unbaptized babes are said Annual births at 36,793,000, ami
to forever crawl, and in which to annual deaths at 32,230,000. Even
punish all future generations for the at this present slight rate of annual
wicked act of Adam, in allowing increase there are now portions of
himself to be snared by the bewitch­ the earth so densely populated as
ing ways of the flesh of his rib into to make daily existence a very ser­
partaking of light refreshment after ious problem.
Saying nothing
the hard mental labor of naming about room for animal and vege­
the various animals as they passed table life, and in which to raise
before him in review. While the food for such a multitude, every
result of her influence over the rib­ particle of the dry land upon the
less Adam has wrought much mis­ earth’s surface would, at present, he
ery, in the bringing of death into covered by a struggling mass of hu­
the world, and the ceaseless roast­ manity, standing three deep upon
ing of countless millions who knew each others shoulders, and the num­
nothing of their common father’s ber hourly increasing with gigantic
faults, yet there are many things strides, without the possibility of
which may be said in Ev^’s favor, any relief. Eve certainly made no
and but for which would have mistake when she brought death
made life upon this earth an end­ into the world, and she is entitled
less misery, and from which there to our gratitude, not our cuises.
could be no possibility of escape.
There could be nothing to eat for
We do not wish to apologize for these people, neither could there he
Eve for listening to the charming relief by starving to death. There
voice of the snake, in the beautiful would be all the horrors of hunger,
garden, while she was yet such a and yet no one could starve to
death. No murder could be com­
young bride, but there are many mitted; no one hung, shot, or elec­
mitigating circumstances in her trocuted. If one fell into the deep
case that would not apply to brides waters of the ocean, he must re­
of the present day. She never had main there forever, for lie could not
the loving care of a watchful die. There could he no relief for
any one. The aged and the in fan t,!
mother; she never knew what it the decrepid, the blind, the sick, V r
was for young men to call on her and the weary, must all take their
Sunday evenings; nor experienced chances with the young and active.
the peculiar sensation of the old f ° eat one another would do no
man winding up the clock at ten, as
as
°,ne e®ten could not
11 " weary burden of the aged
The
a reminder that it was time to de­ could not be laid aside, hut they
part; nor the exper'ence of hanging must toil on forever, without rest
over the front gate for the last word. or hope. Surely Eve performed a
She was absolutely innocent, and great service for the race. She may
knew no wicked ways, and that ‘‘all not have known it, but whether
premeditated or the result of the
is not gold which glitters.” She thoughtless simplicity of her girlish
had no infancy; she never hunted nature, she is equally enitled to
hen’s eggs, played at hide-and-go- our gratitude.
Let the stock-holders of our Uni-
seek, jumped rope, read hooks about
good children, or went to Sunday vershy, of which I hope to be one,
, .
. . .
, .
erect a tablet to her memory, on
school. She simply jumped from , wbi(.b
1(e insclibed) ..Ssc^ d
Adam’s rib into full womanhood at the memory of our greatest hene-
one bound, and without any exper-(factor—our common mother. Eve.”
to
$
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*
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i